Future market slow fashion? - Implications for consumers and companies

Abstract

Clothing as a product only became the subject of interdisciplinary scien-tific consideration at a late stage, as it had previously often been dis-missed as "trivial" and had to take a back seat to supposedly more seri-ous topics (cf. Entwistle, 2015, p. 25). Each and everyone is confronted with clothing on a daily basis. Even those who are not "fashion-interested" cannot avoid dealing with this topic. “Clothes make the man” - and create jobs worldwide: If the number of people employed in agricul-ture to produce the raw materials required and the number of people em-ployed in sales is included in the analysis, then one in six people working internationally in the clothing and textile industry (see FEMNET e.V., 2019). The fashion industry, in this paper used synonymously with the clothing and textile industry, has taken on a pioneering role in the course of globalization and, with the increasing liberalization of world markets, has globally distributed company activities. Hardly any other branch of industry is so integrated into the international division of labor (see Neugebauer & Schewe, 2014; Schneider, 2003, p. 71). According to the "State of Fashion" report published by McKinsey&Company, the industry will continue to grow despite slight losses compared to 2019 - by 3 to 4 percent in 2020 (cf. Amed et al., 2019, p. 98).

In the industrialised countries, this global industry is matched by a level of clothing consumption that goes far beyond the satisfaction of a basic need. On average, sixty items of clothing are bought in Germany per year and per capita - an expression of the consumer society in which we live (cf. bpb, 2020; BMU, 2020a). Overall, private household consumption expenditure rose steadily between 1993 and 2018 - from € 990 in 1993 to € 1740 in 2018 (cf. Federal Statistical Office, 2019). This development is based, on the one hand, on the rising net incomes of households (cf. UBA, 2019a) and, on the other, on the social mechanism of relative com-parison of consumers among themselves, manifested by the provision of individual households with consumer goods (cf. Karlsson, Gärling, Dell-gran & Klingander, 2005, pp. 1220f.). At the same time, the change in production possibilities induced by technical progress means that a greater variety of consumer goods can be offered at lower prices (cf. Eichhorn, 2004, p. 17). Consumer spending on clothing has risen from 59 billion euros in 1993 to 63 billion euros in 2018 (provisional figure) (cf. Federal Statistical Office, 2020). The global clothing industry has been able to "more than double its production since the turn of the millennium" (BMU, 2020a).

In the clothing sector, "fast fashion" has established itself as the dominant business model and is largely responsible for this consumption trend. In standardised mass production, inexpensive items of clothing are manu-factured that are often bought for only one season (cf. Fletcher, 2014, p. 190; BMU, 2020a). Time and again, the focus is on the ecological and social grievances caused by the moon industry, which are particularly visible in the producing countries. Most recently, the award-winning doc-umentary film "The True Cost" caused a sensation. However, there was no broad-based mobilisation of industry or consumers.

In this work the concept of "Slow Fashion" will be examined. Slow Fash-ion is a sustainable movement in the clothing industry with the self-claim to revolutionise the fashion industry (cf. Fletcher, 2010, p. 262). At pre-sent, Slow Fashion is increasingly being studied from a scientific per-spective (cf. Štefko & Steffek, 2018, p.1). However, it is not clear how companies should act in line with the slow fashion theory and what impli-cations arise for consumers if they want to act in line with slow fashion. In addition to elaborating these demands on companies and consumers, the project will examine the extent to which the slow fashion movement, "included" in the existing fashion system (cf. Fletcher, 2020, p. 263), has already had an influence on production and consumption today. Finally, starting points for sustainable business models will be identified.

There are many models that depict the overuse of natural resources by humans. The model of "Planetary Resilience Limits" is given here as an example. In nine dimensions, the planetary carrying capacity limits out-line a "safe operating space for humanity" (Rockström et al., 2009, p. 427) in which the production and consumption of material goods would be ecologically sustainable. Four of the nine limits have already been ex-ceeded (cf. Rockström et al., 2009; Steffen et al., 2015). Continued popu-lation growth, increasing material prosperity and changes in consumption styles in many regions of the world will further increase the risk of cross-ing further planetary boundaries (cf. BMU, 2020b). Today, the textile in-dustry is already responsible for one-tenth of global carbon emissions through production and along the global supply chain (cf. Conca, 2015) - a state of affairs which, according to the model above, breaks all limits of resilience.

The aim of this thesis was to investigate the demands of the slow fashion theory for companies and consumers and where there are starting points to develop sustainable business models in the sense of the slow fashion theory.

Slow Fashion presupposes a high esteem for clothing by all actors (cf. Freudenreich, 2018, p. 9) and makes high demands on companies and consumers, which must be met under the prevailing dominance of fast fashion. Companies should not view the post-sale phases as external, but should take responsibility for these phases and support sustainable (sufficient) consumption within the scope of their possibilities. The re-quirements for companies are mainly in the design phase and in market-ing. Consumers must fulfil their role as users. Slow Fashion requires knowledge (including ecological knowledge and merchandise knowledge), clothing competence and manual skills in the sense of "Craft of Use", time for information gathering and the implementation of measures in the sense of "Craft of Use" as well as willingness to pay more.

The assessment of the status quo clearly shows that there is a need for further research. Based on the current data situation, it is almost impossi-ble to derive developments specifically for slow fashion. Many develop-ments are recorded under the term "sustainable fashion", which is also not defined and can only be vaguely delimited from the term "slow fash-ion" (cf. Jung & Jin, 2014, p. 511). The basis of all research would have to be a uniform definition of "slow fashion". This could then serve as a basis for creating slow fashion personae and best practice models for compa-nies. From an ecological point of view, the benefit phase in particular should be the focus of scientific consideration. The "end of use" phase in particular should be examined to find out at what point in time and for what reason the consumer can no longer or no longer wants to use an item of clothing. Further research would also need to be conducted on the aspect of "unconsciously sustainable action" in order to find out why the consumer uses individual items of clothing for an above-average pe-riod of time. Subsequently, measures could be identified which support this unconsciously sustainable behaviour. Furthermore, the assumption expressed in chapter 4.1.2 regarding the increasing importance of type-appropriate advice in stationary retail trade would have to be investigat-ed. According to Schaltegger and Freudenreich (2019, p. 3), the implica-tions of the sufficiency strategy for existing companies must also be in-vestigated.

Slow fashion will remain a niche market for the time being and therefore more a future vision than a future market. During the development it be-came obvious that the slow fashion theory is currently not yet able to pro-vide satisfactory answers for many process stages for both companies and consumers. Fletcher, as the main protagonist of the movement, re-mains vague and vague in her statements. The claims elaborated here can therefore only offer limited guidance for consumers and companies. In the status quo, the educated woman, who wants to have a positive in-fluence locally through her purchase decision, was identified as a slow fashion customer. It is likely that a "slow luxury fashion segment" will emerge by offering garments "tailor-made by local craftsmen" (Freuden-reich, 2018, p. 5) - the broad mass of the population could not afford to buy garments produced in this way. In general it is questionable whether the majority of the population has the skills and creativity to become ac-tive in the sense of slow fashion or is willing to spend the time to take ad-vantage of appropriate educational opportunities. The higher price of slow fashion items is not reasonable for all parts of the population and excluding low-income groups from buying new clothes would discrimi-nate against them. Moreover, production in the spirit of Slow Fashion will lead to the loss of jobs, especially for women, in the LMIC - aspects for which Slow Fashion must provide an answer.

From a sustainability perspective, Slow Fashion is a desirable develop-ment in the fashion industry, as it combines low production volumes of sustainably produced clothing with low consumption levels. However, pure doctrine, which always presupposes rational consumer action, is unlikely to work in fashion, as fashion is irrational per se, the buying pro-cess is highly emotionalised and change is an essential element of fash-ion. Thus, within the Slow Fashion movement, Second-Hand fashion seems to offer a great potential, as the additional functions of fashion can be fulfilled here.

The starting points for Slow Fashion business models discussed in this thesis show three paths - Extended Use, Reuse, Partial Reuse - which are compatible with the sufficiency strategy. These approaches for busi-ness models are surprisingly lacking in innovation: in all three areas there are niche markets which are already served by some companies. Due to the incomplete data situation, this aspect could unfortunately not be included in the status quo analysis. The aspect of monetization in the business models mentioned was of particular interest in the research. Slow fashion companies must show that sustainable products and ser-vices can be profitable and take on a pioneering role. According to the "State of Fashion 2020" forecast published by McKinsey&Company, the concept of "end of ownership" is becoming increasingly important; only the critical mass has not yet been reached (cf. Amed et al., 2019, p. 14).

Another result of the work is that Slow Fashion is generally a "renais-sance" of skills and ideas once present in the population. Shirts, for ex-ample, were "modularly designed" as early as the 19th century, so that the removable collar could be washed and replaced separately (see GANT, 2020). Handicrafts were also dominated by a larger part of society and the sharing of clothing was more common (cf. Smith, 2015, p. 143).

Of the approaches to sustainable business models discussed here, the "reuse" approach seems to be the most promising, even if it is only the second-best option from an environmental perspective. It not only recog-nises that sufficiency does not require absolute abstinence (cf. Freuden-reich & Schaltegger, p. 6), but also that the functions of fashion, especial-ly the immanence of change, can be taken into account by this approach. In addition, it offers a variety of approaches for business models due to the transactions required for the transfer of the garments. The reuse ap-proach, however, presupposes that the consumers themselves become active. It is important to keep transaction costs as low as possible (cf. Freudenreich & Schaltegger, p. 8; Niinimäki, 2018, p. 50) in order to close the attitude behaviour gap.

Slow Fashion makes high demands on consumers. The future market Slow Fashion could therefore be dominated by companies that help con-sumers to meet these demands. Especially the demands in the area of "Craft of Use" seem to be a challenge for the broad mass of the popula-tion. A platform linking consumers with experts who offer individual solu-tions for apparently no longer wearable garments could be promising. Turnover would be generated here, on the one hand, through profes-sional advice and, on the other hand, by executing the options identified in the advice if the consumer has neither the time nor the skills and equipment to carry out the measures independently.

Although Slow Fashion remains a niche market for the time being, the insights gained from this work suggest that the change induced by politi-cal decisions or crises could take place faster than expected. For exam-ple, if living wages for textile workers, a supply chain law or a stricter pes-ticide regulation were to be passed, companies would be forced to act. The introduction of a label could also increase the pressure on compa-nies to meet the criteria set out in the label. The Corona pandemic will also have an impact on the global fashion industry. According to Rup-precht (in the press office of Münster University of Applied Sciences, 2020), "the global supply chains for many products" will generally be re-considered as a result of the corona crisis. Shortly after the worldwide lock-down, the "TextilWirtschaft" newspaper already headlined the ques-tion whether the crisis could lead to a new seasonal rhythm in the fashion industry (cf. Emig, 2020). Slow Fashion can offer an answer to many questions arising from the crisis. It is possible that additional potential for slow fashion could arise under these changed conditions.